Presently, user equipment, such as wireless communication devices, communicate with other communication devices using wireless signals, such as within a network environment that can include one or more cells within which various communication connections with the network and other devices operating within the network can be supported. Network environments often involve one or more sets of standards, which each define various aspects of any communication connection being made when using the corresponding standard within the network environment. Examples of developing and/or existing standards include new radio access technology (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS), Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), and/or Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE).
In many instances, communicating with a network can be supported through a dedicated scheduling grant, where as needed, a particular user equipment can contact the network with a request for dedicated resources in support of an uplink transmission. Such a scheduling grant, will often entail a series of back and forth communications sometimes referred to as a handshaking procedure between the user equipment making the request and the network entity, in order to set aside resources in the form of a channel definition including a defined set of time and frequency resources during which the particular user equipment can schedule the requested uplink of information. However depending upon how often the user equipment has information to upload, and the amount of information being communicated when it does, as well as the tolerance for varying degrees of delay associated with the communication(s), the procedures involving a request for dedicated resources may be less than ideal. In some instances, it may be possible to access a shared channel without obtaining prior approval relative to a specific transmission via which one or more user equipment may be able to send information to the network in absence of a dedicated scheduling grant or as part of a grant-free communication. Such a transmission, may be able to avoid the overhead associated with requesting a dedicated grant including the delay in facilitating the potentially multiple back and forth communications that might be related to an affiliated handshaking procedure in establishing the same.
However being a shared space set aside for grant-free communications, there may be instances in which multiple user equipment are interested in sending information to the network via the shared space at the same time. The present inventors have recognized, that by managing the operating power levels associated with the transmission of information via the shared space for multiple user equipment, that access to the shared channel space can be better regulated. In this way, the particular user equipment can implement varying power levels that allow for different ones of the user equipment to be better capable of establishing a connection with the network at different times, even though multiple users may be attempting to simultaneously access the resources associated with the shared space.